We will have a curfew from 10 pm to 6 am, says Chile's Interior Minister Carolina Toha at a press conference.
Over 90 percent of Chile's population of 20 million people have been affected by the power outage, according to the authorities. The area without power stretches all the way from Arica in the north to Los Lagos in the south.
In the capital Santiago, the subway stopped, traffic lights ceased to function, people got stuck in elevators, and offices had to be evacuated when the power suddenly disappeared on Tuesday afternoon.
The Interior Minister says that there is no reason to assume that it would be an attack or sabotage, but rather that it is likely a system failure in the power grid.
She estimates that the power will be back on again "in the coming hours".
